I've found another area that could cause problems in the vote counting area.
I've been running various sceanios and here's what I've found:
In point 5 of A.6. describes the STV method. Basicly, if no one option has 1/2
the votes, The option that got the least number of votes is removed and
every ballot that had that option listed as 1st prefered, will use thier 2nd
prefered as 1st and 3rd prefered as 2nd. If a ballot has had all of it's
options disqualified (lets say they only voted a 1 in one option and left the
others blank.. and that option gets disqualified), their "vote" has no options.
The Constitution doesn't state what to do with these ballots so they remain
counted toward the "total half" needed by the winning option but they don't add
any count to any option. It's possible for this "no preference" to actually
win the vote. The constitution doesn't state what this would mean, either...
This is particularly possible in the cases where a Supermajority is needed.
Possible Options that wouldn't be far fetched: "no preference" = the default
option or ballots with no preference don't count towards the "half" needed to
win.
In point 8, where Quorum is talked about, it states that for an option to win,
it must have X more votes for than vs. the default option. Ok, there are two
methods used to determine a winner.... if method one doesn't produce a winner
(More people prefer this option against that option) we switch to the other
method (STV). These two methods can *often* result in different outcomes so
the answer to this next question can make an important difference in the
outcome of votes: If the first method produces a clear winner ( "4. If there
is any option which Dominates all others then that is the winner" and "2.
option A is said to Dominate option B if *strictly* more ballots prefer A to B
than prefer B to A" emphasis mine), but fails to get the Quorum, do we still
switch to the STV method ( "5. If there is now *more than one* option
remainging STV will be applied to choose amongst those remaining" emphasis mine)
of do we end the count there and declare the default option to have won? I
think the constitution implies that the vote ends there...
- Darren
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